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Friday, May 25, 2012

Bandana Dress Tutorial

Here's a quick summary of how I made this fun dress.

Using scraps of bandanas that I was given, I pieced together this fun outfit. The squares are 3 inches by 3 inches, and I used 11 squares in each row with 5 rows total. The amount of squares you would need would vary based on the size of the little cutie you are making the dress for.

The top was really simple. It is two panels, one for the front and one for the back. To get the fun zig zag look, I simply took the strips of fabric (they are 2 inches wide) and cut them so that one end was 2 inches and the other is 1 inch. (see photo below.) Since they end up the same measurements, they fit together like a puzzle leaving the edge completely straight. I cut the pink and the purple pieces at the angle, but left the turquoise piece straight. Then I sewed them together to form the front and back parts of the dress. One thing that you can't really tell from the photo is that the strips are doubled over. I did that so I wouldn't have to use a lining on it.

The skirt is lined in a lightweight white fabric because of the fact that without it, the dress is see-through. It also has an elastic waist band. To finish the edge, I simply did a zig zag stitch on both the colored fabric and the lining.

The straps were tricky for me. I wanted to just have them permanent, but to have the dress fit the way I wanted it to, there would be no way for my daughter's head to fit through the opening. So I went with a simple tie. I used two strips of fabric. One was attached to the back piece and one to the front, and then you tie them together to hold the dress up. Really easy and effective.

In the end, this was the perfect play dress. I paired it with the fun sequin flower I made and it was a really cute outfit for her to wear.

Since this tutorial is really not comprehensive, if you have any questions, please ask me. I am always more than happy to clarify or answer questions.